The Hidden Side of Students’ Marriage at an Iranian University: A Qualitative Study of Achievements and Barriers

Background: Celebration of university students’ marriage ceremonies in Iran dates back to around three decades, but its positive and negative aspects require further reconsideration. This study is intended to explore those aspects in the words of university students who married during their studying at the university. Methods: In this qualitative study, a qualitative content analysis method was used to evaluate the experiences and perceptions of students. Sixteen university students (8 couples) were selected through purposive sampling and interviewed at Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2016. The participants, who were newlywed couples with an age range of 18 to 28 years, attended a semi-structured in-depth interview. Results: The analyzed data emerged as four major categories (and eleven subcategories), including (a) inspirational and prompting factors (membership in the student unions, enhanced opportunity to know peers, attitude change towards marriage on the campus, and peers sharing experiences of marriage on the campus), (b) existence of supportive resources (existence of social support, and existence of economic support for marriage on the campus), (c) barriers and failing marriages (barriers against marriage on the campus and causes of failure), and (d) achievements in marital life (social maturation, enhancing life goals, and maturational development in the married life). Conclusions: University students’ marriage on the campus offers the couples a successful married life in the future. Social maturation and development in married life are the fruit of such marriages; however, economic problems and low social and family support are still among the concerns for university students wishing to marry at the university.